US Edition2-month-olds see the world in a more complex way than scientists thought, study suggests
Researchers used fMRI and AI to show 130 infants categorized 12 object types at two months, revealing early visual cognition and potential for neurodevelopmental diagnostics.
- On February 2, researchers from the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin published in Nature Neuroscience that two-month-old infants can categorize objects in their brains.
- Researchers note earlier methods relied on looking-time measures that are hard to assess at very young ages, and past studies suggested categorization emerged around three to four months while aiming to reveal visual categorization and prelinguistic learning.
- Scanning 130 two-month-old infants, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging while babies watched bright images for 15-20 minutes on a beanbag with sound-cancelling headphones and applied artificial intelligence models to analyse responses to 12 visual categories.
- The team says the dataset could inform diagnostic tools, with Professor Eleanor Molloy, neonatologist at Children's Health Ireland, emphasizing the potential of high success rates for awake fMRI in early neurodevelopmental disorder research.
- Researchers hope the largest longitudinal fMRI study, with a nine-month follow-up from 66 infants, will inspire AI models and improve early‑years education.
51 Articles
51 Articles
Infants have rich visual categories in ventrotemporal cortex at 2 months of age
What are the foundations of visual categories in the human brain? Although infant looking behavior characterizes the development of overt categorization, it cannot measure neural representation or distinguish the underlying mechanism. For this, we need rich neuroimaging from young infants and the capacity to apply advanced computational models of vision. In this study, we conducted an awake functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of m…
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der Standard DEA study from Dublin shows amazingly early foundations of cognition: Long before language and grasping, the brain of infants already ranks the world by categories
Babies, at 2, see world in more complex way than scientists thought
A new study suggests that babies are able to distinguish between the different objects they see around them at 2 months old, which is earlier than scientists previously thought. ...Keep on reading: Babies, at 2, see world in more complex way than scientists thought
Infants can't even look sharp, but according to one study, they're already structuring their environment at two months and distinguishing objects by category. Is this ability even congenital?
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